The Menifee Union School District in California recently pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary from their shelves and is investigating what they consider “age-inappropriate” words. The controversy began when a student thumbing through ”oralism” and “orang” in the dictionary, found the recent entry “oral sex“. A parent complained to the school district after the child read the definition: “oral stimulation of the genitals.” (And how).
The school district is now forming a committee composed of principals, teachers and parents to determine whether the 470,000 entries are suitable for children. Free speech advocates (and sane people), worry that this is “needless and harmful censorship”. Seriously, why don’t you take a look at the Bible and let me know if the stories of rape, pillage, murder and the like are suitable for children? Or for that matter, check out one of any classically gruesome Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales.
The Executive Director of the California First Amendment Coalition stated, “If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books at all in our public libraries. I think common sense seems to be lacking in this school.” Obvi. The school district might settle for trading the collegiate editions for Merriam-Webster’s Children’s Dictionary. (I’m sure the pictures are lovely.)
To read the complete article, click here.
Passive Agression: Just Spit it Out!
Is there anything more irritating than when someone texts you something that you know they’d never have the balls to say to your face and adds an ‘lol‘ to the end?
We all know you meant it, the ‘lol‘ just makes you look like a pussy. Seriously, grow a pair and just say it like it is.
Personally, if someone doesn’t have the decency to tell me what the problem is, then it’s their problem. I tried being passive aggressive once; it’s overrated.
Confrontation is my middle name. I’m actually thinking of dropping my first and last name and just being ‘Confrontation’ a la Madonna…
McGospel Fest: A Match Made in McHeaven
I constantly notice what corporations sponsor and who they consider to be their target markets. I’m even more fascinated by how they attempt to reach those audiences. It’s the marketing geek within me, I guess. Anyway I saw a pretty good marketing marriage that made me guffaw: McDonald’s Gospel Fest, a talent competition featuring choirs, steppers, praise dancers, soloists, gospel rappers and gospel poets, singing groups, and gospel comedians.
The sponsorship really speaks to McDonalds’ core demographic of low income minorities. Sponsorships such as these exist to leave consumers thinking “McDonald’s is doing good for my community” instead of “damn po’ quality food makin’ black folk everywhere fatter than Miss Jenkins (but you didn’t hear that from me)”. And then people wonder why this country has an obesity problem… McDonald’s Gospel Fest will be held on Sunday, July 13th at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ (AKA car theft capital of the world).
$@bs
“You know what really grinds my gears?” The fact that when you get someone’s voicemail, you also get at least 5 minutes of irritating instructions you have to suffer through. Seriously, we’re almost a decade into the new millennium. Who doesn’t know how voicemail works?
If you try to press a button to get things moving, every carrier has a different system and what ends up happening is that the caller is led in a circle of menu options, ultimately prevented from leaving a message. This is commonly referred to as voicemail jail, and boy does it piss me off.
I barely even listen to my voicemail anymore anyway. Since the invention of caller ID, I can obviously see who called and I just call them back. Who needs to listen to 15 minutes of people saying ‘hey’, followed by their name and a request for a return call? If it’s a longer message than that, it’s just annoying to sit through. I think I’m going to change my outgoing message to: “Hey, this is Sabs. Don’t leave a message after the tone! Thanks and have a great day.”
$@bs
Since the moment I sat down this morning, I had Mac issues and couldn’t even sign on. It wasn’t until 4:00 this afternoon that I was finally able to log in and knew something had clearly had gone awry. Yesterday it took all morning to configure access to 2 shared calendars and Tuesday it took IT seriously ALL DAY to set up my computer. Suspect…
Once I finally had Internet access (breathes sigh of relief), I confirmed that Mercury is in retrograde (OBVI). This is a backward motion of the planet occurring in several stages. First the planet seems to stand still, then backs up through all of the signs, stands still again, and finally resumes forward motion.
The result: communications, travel, appointments, mail and the Internet are all turned into a general clusterf*ck (it’s a technical term). This retro period began May 7th and lasts for three weeks or so, until May 31. Now I don’t really know what all of this means, except I suddenly notice the eShit hitting the fan and am immediately able to call shenanigans.
$@bs
What Cuts Me 2 The Quick: Broken Glass
I was washing dishes when a glass bottle broke (more like spontaneously combusted) and cut my arm so deeply it exposed the bone and tendon: NASTY. I hate the sight of my own blood, but that’s trivial compared to the sight of my own blood flowing over the bone in my arm.
The good news is I didn’t have to go back to Harlem Hospital (as in the case of the Pot Hole Smack Down of ‘08). Instead I went to Mt. Sinai, which I highly recommend. I would, however, discourage anyone from raking broken glass down the arm.
Textual Chocolate – The Txt Addiction
Ok, maybe it’s just me, but I think the texting thing has gotten way out of hand. Texting should only be for quick, short messages like, “5 mins. late”, “i’m here, r u?” and “miss you”. It’s really irritating to get a txt from someone you haven’t spoken to in a hot minute that says you “hey how are you?” I mean, why not just pick up the phone? Am I really going to sit there and text a narrative of what’s surpassed in the last 4 months? No, I’m not. That question requires more characters than I care to push at one time.
Having a conversation over text is just so impractical and a lot of people don’t seem to understand when it’s appropriate and when it’s not; they clearly abuse the medium. For instance, there are several people I know that have been the victim of a text break up. That’s just plain weak and as a general rule, having a delicate convo over text is never a good idea and often has disastrous results (TRUST)!
I’ve had several text arguments, to no avail. Once, in attempt to end it, I responded with:
“The subscriber you are trying to reach no longer accepts messages from this number. Message: NKXR#3000″
I don’t think he bought it since he replied with an lol, but regardless, it ended the text war, so mission accomplished. I win (OBVI).
$@bs
Having information at one’s fingertips makes everyone an expert in everything. Information is now so easily obtained it has made some questions seem obsolete: who, what, when, where, and why (oh, and how). There’s just no need for them when you can find out answers to almost anything so quickly yourself.
When I’m blogging, tweeting, blipping, or the other 1,000 things I do simultaneously online, and someone asks one of these questions about content I’ve published (what does that term mean, who is that author, when did that movie come out), I always responds in links rather than offering an explanation.
Wouldn’t it save some time to cut out the middle man and just Google is yourself? I mean, I can understand why The 5 Ws come up in the context of a conversation where no Internet access is available (in real life), or if they have to do with opinion, experience or personal preference, but otherwise they seem like kind of a waste of time. I’m not your assistant; do your own research.
$@bs
I’ve been noticing more and more blogs about people’s mundane lives. My question: does anyone really care? I want to know; because I know that I don’t. I’m talking about the blogs that people write about boring, ordinary crap: their children, weekend plans, meals, problems with co-workers, and a lot of other b.s. you’d normally have to pay someone to listen to (like a shrink)!
What is the draw here? I mean, if I wanted to hear meaningless drivel, I’d call up my sister who has three kids and no life. She can spend hours talking about which one of her kids did the cutest thing, which said the funniest thing, which took the most adorable shit. Who cares (except her)? I mean, we’re related so I’m only mildly interested. But why would someone publish this on the Interweb?
There are so many examples I could link to here, but I don’t want to offend anyone (for once) and anyway, I just want to know your perspective. Do you read blogs like that? If so, what is the reasoning?
$@bs
A NY State of Mind: F*ck You
Lately I’ve been feeling like bitch slapping all of NYC across the face. I try to look the other way when people are rude, obnoxious, or just plain scary, but how long can one possibly ignore this behavior? When people are getting into altercations at every turn, it’s difficult not to get involved in the contention.
Now, there are obvious moments when there’s no choice but to hold back. For instance, as I sat in Bryant Square Park, minding my own business, embracing the Kenny Bloggins within, a (drunk) old man suddenly started screaming obscenities at someone for at least 5 minutes. Clearly there may have been danger involved should I have had the misfortune of not being able to keep my pie hole shut. Much to my surprise, I remained silent. I have not been so lucky on other occasions.
Last week I was delighted to have received a free ticket to Joe’s Pub to see jazz guitarist, Julian Lage. I was even more pleased when I arrived and was seated at a very comfy couch next to a very agreeable gentleman. The friend meeting 
me there was late, so I made pleasant chit chat with the gentleman next to me. No sooner had he excused himself to use the men’s room, when a belligerent jerkoffsky sat down in his place. I started to let the man know that someone was already sitting there, but he rudely cut me off and told me to tell the management. I then attempted to inform the new arrival that I didn’t even know the man that had been sitting there, when I was interrupted again by said fuckerman who again told me to take it up with management.
At this point, management came over to let me know that they had made an error by seating me there and wanted to move me to a horribly cramped table positioned in the most claustrophobic section in the venue. I was so irritated that I announced I was leaving and stood up to do so, but not before I turned to the intRUDEr and let him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was a complete and total asshole. Then I left in a 1978 huff. Does this happen so often in other parts of the world? “Can’t we all just get along“? So far it really doesn’t seem like it. I’m making a concerted effort to be a better person, but others have been making this excruciatingly difficult. “Dear Alex and Annie, what shall I do?”
$@bs
